Potstickers

INGREDIENTS:

Dough for potstickers

1lb ground pork

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 small bok choy, chopped

1 carrot

2 tbsp minced ginger

cilantro

green onions

hot chili sauce

salt

oil

Sauce:

soy sauce

vinegar

Cut up garlic, carrot, bok choy and sauté in oil. Add meat and stir until completely cooked. Ad salt and chili paste. Turn off the stove burner and then add chopped green onions and cilantro.

Place about 1 spoon of filling per dumpling. Use water to seal the edges. Press with fingers and set aside. Repeat this process for each dumpling. This is a tedious job as you have to make them one by one, and it takes a while. It is a good idea to have a "dumpling party" and have your friends over to make a large batch. It will go fasted with more people, and it will also give you an opportunity to bond and tell each other how your day went. Then you can freeze them uncooked and use them later.

Fry in hot oil on both sides.

You can also try a healthier option and steam then or cook them in water.

Serve with the sauce you prepared by mixing soy sauce and vinegar in equal proportions.

Slow Cooked Pork Pasta Sauce

Hello again. I have received several Emails in the recent months about why I don't post any more recipes. The answer is- I don't cook and entertain as much anymore as I used to, and to be honest, I also have lost my motivation. Sometimes, I just don't like the photos, other times I dont even have the patience to take them.

But here it is again. I cooked something, took pictures, and now I am trying to find some words to write. They don't always come easy.

One thing for sure- I am so happy to see that someone at Google finally fixed that horrible annoying problem of not being able to upload more than 4 photos to Blogger through Picasa.

Ok, let's talk food now...

As my one and only social event since I moved to Portland, I go out with my coworkers every Thursday. We call it TGIT, and we plan this event carefully. Every Thursday, starting around noon, tons of Emails are flying around trying to figure out a place to meet. It started off as trying out different breweries, but I gotta admit, I am just not much of a beer person. I go for a company more than anything, and just lack of better things to do.

Last Thursday, the group was small, and I was able to convince them to go to a place other than a brewery. YEY for me!

It was a nice calm evening, even the sun came out for a bit. We sat outside and started letting out our frustrations about work (that's what TGIT is all about). We already shared one appetizer dish when we noticed an interesting meal on the menu. I can't remember what it was called, but it was made out of the "hazelnut fed pigs". Just because of that, we decided to order it. It was a pasta dish, slow cooked pork in spicy tomato sauce with crushed dried bread mixed in with it. It was very good, we wolfed it down and immediately ordered another one. When we finished our second serving, we asked the waiter if he could top that. He hesitated, so we ordered the third hazelnut fed pork dish. It was that good.

I thought to myself, this is a good idea. I should try to make this as close as I can. I have made pasta sauce out of slow cooked beef, but never pork. I have no idea what kind of pork meat it was, other than the pigs were fed with hazelnut, or what kind of spices they used. I had to improvise.

A the supermarket, there are many kinds of pork cuts: pork roast seemed like an obvious choice at first, definitely not pork chops. But then my hand went right for the tender loin, thats a good cut of meat. At that point, I saw boneless ribs, and decided that loin is too lean, and ribs are definitely the best choice. Well, that was my choice, since this recipe was completely left to interpretation. If you are trying to make this, please feel free to pick whatever cut of meat you find most suitable for this recipe.

The slow cooked pork pasta sauce I made was very tasty. This is tasty that makes happy- when you invent a good tasting dish!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2lb of boneless pork ribs, or another boneless cut of pork
• 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp ground coriander seed
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 large onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 jalapeños
• 2 bell peppers
• oil
• 1/3 cup red wine
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 5-6 dried peppers
• 1 package of rigatoni pasta

serves 4

Wash the meat and pat dry with paper towel.

In a zip lock bag, mix flour, paprika, ground coriander, salt and pepper.

Cut the meat into about 2in strips and place in the zip lock back with spice mix. Mix around until all the pieces of meat are evenly coated. Discard the rest of the spice mix.

Heat oil in a frying pan. Brown the meat for about 3 minutes on each side.

While the meat is browning, slice the onions, peppers and mince garlic cloves. Then add the veggies to the meat. At this point taste the mixing spoon and see whether you need to ad more salt or not.

When the veggies become soft, deglaze the pan with red wine and transfer the entire content of the pan into the slow cooker. Add canned tomatoes and mix all together.

Cover with dried peppers and cook on low for 8-10 hours. You have enough time to go for a hike.

When you come back home, set the past to cook. In the meantime, separate the meat form the crockpot into a serving bowl. Blend the veggies all together in the food processor, and mix in with the meat again. You can use as many dried peppers as you like. They tend to be hot, so if you use all of them, you sauce will probably be fairly spicy.

Although it cooks for a long time, this recipe is very easy to prepare. This dish is convenient to make for large parties. Also, the leftovers keep well.

Pork and Vegetable Casserole- Djuvec

Djuvec is a casserole dish made with pork or chicken and a variety of vegetables. It can also be made without meat. This is a very easy recipe. The measures are approximate, so you can't make a mistake there. Also, you can use any veggies you like.

Ingredients:

1lb of pork neck meat, cut into 1in cubes

3 tbsp oil

2 tomatoes

2 bell peppers

2 carrots

1 onion

3 small red potatoes

handful of green beans

1 cup white rice

salt and pepper to taste

Saute sliced onions over medium heat until they are golden brown.

Then add meat and 4 tbsp water and cook covered for about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally and add more water if needed.

Add cut up veggies and water (to cover the meat and veggies) and continue to cook covered for another 10 minutes.

At this point, there should be plenty of sauce in the pan, covering the veggies and meat. Add rice and cook mixing continuously.

Cook for another 20 minutes until rice is done.

Baked Pork Ribs with Baby Potatoes

Ingredients:

Pork ribs
Potatoes
Salt and pepper
oil


Please pork ribs in an oven safe dish. Generously apply salt on both sides.

Turn the fatty side up and bake in the oven for 3 hours at 350F. Add a little bit of oil. The amount of oil added will depend of your dish. For non stick dishes, add about 3-4 tablespoons. This will cook it slowly and the fat will melt, this is why you don't need very much oil. Check it occasionally and if it starts drying out, sprinkle more oil over it.

When the pork ribs are done, place washed baby potatoes around the meet, add salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle more oil if needed. Raise the temperature to 450F and bake until potatoes are done. This should take about 30-45 minutes.

During the baking, turn the potatoes once or twice, s that they cool on all sides.

Serve hot. No side dishes necessary, but if you have some green veggies or salad ,that would work.


All done.

Sarma ala Zorana & Mama (Serbian = Сарма)

Sarma one of the most common Serbian dishes. Sarma in Turkish means "wrapping". Although we wrap many different kinds of leaves, sarma commonly refers to wrapped sour cabbage leaves.

Sarmas in Serbia are made with smoked pork ribs and absorb a nice smoky flavor as they simmers for a long time. Since it is not easy to get good smoked meat here, my mom and I made this experiment to see how we can make good sarmas with ingredients you are easily found at the supermarket. Of course you will have to get sour cabbage at a specialty store. We found this at the Rose Market, a Persian store in Mountain View.


Ingredients:

20 sour cabbage leaves (whole)
2 yellow onions, minced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 lbs ground beef
0.5 lbs ground pork
1 smoked polish sausage, 1/2 shredded in the food processor, and 1/2 sliced
1.5 cups white rice
8 bacon slices, 3 slices minced, and 5 sliced left whole
1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp paprika
1.5 tsp Vegeta or another vegetable based seasoning salt and pepper
3 bay leaves
several dried red peppers (optional)

Prepare all the ingredients- mince onions and garlic, cut up the bacon and shred 1/2 of the sausage.

Heat the oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough, add bacon and allow it to cook for several minutes. Bacon should not be crispy, so don't overcook it.

Add onions and garlic, and stir. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the meat: ground pork, ground beef and shredded sausage. Now, it is important to stir the meat well and break up the lumps, especially if your meat was previously frozen.

When the meat looks cooked, add rice and mix well.

Now that you have a good mixture of onions, garlic, meats and rice, add paprika, Vegeta, salt and pepper. Be generous on paprika and pepper, but do not go overboard with salt, as the cabbage leaves are already very salty. Mix well.

Turn off the burner and allow the meat to cool down a bit while you prepare the cabbage leaves.

Take the cabbage leaves out of the jar carefully, so that they don't rip. Rinse them and stack them into a plate. If any leaves are very large, you may cut them in half.

Get your crock pot ready. Please a couple of slices on bacon on the bottom, and any smaller or ripped cabbage pieces. Cabbage is not necessary here unless you have some pieces to spare.

Now you are ready to wrap sarmas. Make an assembly line- cabbage leaves on the left, meat in the middle, and crock pot on the right.
1. Hold one cabbage leaf in your left hand. Place about 2 scoops of a meat fill with a wooden spoon.
2. Fold the cabbage leaf
3. Fold the two sides
4. Wrap tightly
5. Praise your sarma
6. Place it into the crock pot


In order to get good at sarma wrapping, you need a lot of practice. Here is a short video of my mom wrapping sarmas that might help you start.

Once you cover the bottom of the crock pot, add some sausage slices in between sarmas, then stack the rest of the sarma on top. You will need to make a second level.

When you are done with the second level, use the leftover sausage slices to put in between the sarmas on the second level, add the bay leaves as well, then cover the sarmas with the remaining cabbage leaves, bacon slices and dried peppers if you have any. Dried peppers are not a traditional way of making sarmas, but they add a great flavor and I would recommend adding them to this dish if you can find some. But please, don't use the spicy ones, this dish is not meant to be spicy, as it has a great flavor already that should not be overpowered by a hot pepper.

Rinse the flavors from the pan with water, and then use that water to fill the crock pot.

Fill to water to almost over the sarmas.

Cook on low for 9 hours.

Serve with fresh baguette on the side. Sarmas are good reheated, and taste even better the next day.


Also see collard greens sarma.



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